Sledgehammer has confirmed that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will include 13 multiplayer maps at launch. Advanced Warfare is still on track to launch November 3rd and will be offered for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC.

While the game will include 13 multiplayer maps a launch, Season Pass and Collector’s Edition buyers will also be getting Atlas Gorge which is a reimaging of the Modern Warfare’s Pipeline map that has not been set in a Central China location that is based on the Three Gorges Dam.

Microsoft has already announced a Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Xbox One Special Edition console and Limited Edition wireless controller to go along with the Advanced Warfare launch that we already told you about. The Special Edition Advanced Warfare console will include a 1TB hard drive standard as a bonus to those buying this version of the Xbox One console. Xbox One owners will still continue to enjoy first release of DLC content for Call of Duty going forward, but we believe that the Atlas Gorge map will be available to all on launch day for those holding a Season Pass or those that purchase the Collectors Edition.

Sledgehammer Games, the Activision studio that worked on Modern Warfare 3, is apparently looking to ramp up its personnel for the Call of Duty development team. A job listing does not call it Call of Duty by name, but we know what it is.

Sledgehammer was pulled off the COD project it was working on to assist Infinity Ward in finishing Call of Duty 3. (Raven was also brought in to help.) According to what we were hearing at the time, Sledgehammer was working on some sort of a third-person COD title that it put on the back burner; but it appears now to be again moving to the front.

While the COD franchise is now an annual release title, for the time being the release has been alternating between two studios. With the addition of Sledgehammer, could it be that the franchise might be moving to alternating among three studios? Hard to say, but expect Activision to fill in the blanks next year when it starts to crank up the hype machine for the next COD installment.

Talk of an action-adventure Call of Duty title that was apparently in development or going to be developed by Sledgehammer Games is still apparently very much alive; but apparently are on the shelf for the time being. The developers at Sledgehammer are focused on working with Infinity Ward on Modern Warfare 3 right now, but that does not mean that they will not get back to working on the action-adventure COD project that Activision hopes will broaden the COD audience.

Back in March it was confirmed that Sledgehammer was working on a new COD title that would apparently move the game into the action-adventure gaming genre, but with the news for more hands on deck to deliver Modern Warfare 3 on time, other projects are on the back burner. Despite Sledgehammer’s involvement, Activision has gone to great lengths to make sure that it is known this is very much an Infinity Ward game; and the title features many of the same developers that worked on Modern Warfare 2, even though Jason West and Vince Zampella are not involved with Modern Warfare 3.

While Activision wants to do more with the COD franchise, these things take time and right now the focus has to be on getting Modern Warfare out the door. Sources tell us that there are no problems with MW3 making its announcement ship date.

A number of sources think that the next chapter in the Modern Warfare franchise will be written by Sledgehammer Games. That’s right: many think that Sledgehammer is already hard at work on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and not Infinity Ward.

Suggestions seem to favor the fact that Infinity Ward is currently in a rebuilding process and trying to aggressively restock its talent pool. Even if Infinity Ward is successful in doing so, it is unknown what the future might hold for the developer. No one seems to know what they might be working on going forward, or if it will still be working on projects in the Call of Duty family of titles.

It could be that Sledgehammer is working on something else that will be new to the Call of Duty franchise, which is speculated to be a third-person-style shooter spin-off; but with Infinity Ward in a rebuilding phase it is possible that those plans might have been put on the shelf, according to some of the whispers that we are hearing. Of course, a COD MMO FPS title has also been rumored, so perhaps there is enough work in the Call of Duty franchise to go around.

Still, we are told that Activision is expecting a Call of Duty release for November 2011; but right now we don’t know who is developing it or what kind of title it will be. Sources tell us that a possible announcement could come during CES in January that will provide more insight to the future of the Call of Duty franchise.